Wednesday, July 9, 2014

And just like that, it seems, we managed to wrap up another time frame in history. It's funny really, because as we raced along the past few weeks I was pretty sure we'd end up needing more time then I'd scheduled. There's something about seeing that break ahead though that caused the kids to buckle down & get the work done.

Last week marked the close of our time with Ancient Rome, all though I'm sure as we begin Middle Ages with the opening of the New Church we'll still find we're in Rome. Hopefully that won't be a huge shock to the kids! I'm actually quite relieved to be through these time periods in history & delighted to spend the next long while dawdling in the middle ages!

We moved to the midway point in Exodus last week with our Bible listening. It was quite funny because even though the kids know the stories this particular audio version really captivates them & when I went to turn it off before the final plagues came to Egypt the boys were highly upset. Needless to say we switched it back on to finish that portion of the story.

Still moving along in our poetry book. It's broken down into many sections & we've moved into the transportation section now. There's been a few funny ones in there to say the least. We're still enjoying the book though & moving at a lovely slow pace to have it last the entire school year.

Jayde moved forward in math again this past week, not a big surprise there. He was following me around with his math book though in hopes that I'd correct on the spot. No such luck & he finally camped out at the kitchen island while I was working on spelling with Morgan. He could use a minor brush-up on his multiplication facts as I noticed he was faltering a bit with his 6 facts this past week.

Morgan advanced another lesson as well. If he tackles the final lesson in his book next week he'll get to start his new math book in our new term. Exciting times! He did really well with his last lesson, but was slightly panicked that math was now taking him longer. My explanation that he was working on complex problems did little to appease him, so I spoke with a friend who uses the same curriculum to teach other students & she confirmed what I was thinking. When I told that to Morgan suddenly it was all okay, & interestingly enough he finished his math quicker that day too.

Ignore the mess.. Morgan was catching up on his reading with Bronze Bow, & from the looks of the paper in his lap possibly MOH Vol. 1 too. I think he still has a few chapter of Bronze Bow to go which he'll finish up before we start our new term. It really is a good book, he's just been easily distracted to read & listen to other things of late.

We wrapped up Caesar Augusts' World this week as well as The Mystery Of The Roman Ransom. We were all delighted to bring Augustus' world to an end, the book was delightful but some of our readings were incredibly lengthy. I was also a little disappointed in the way the life of Jesus was represented & considered less likely to be true, where as Buddha's life was mentioned & his story told yet nothing was said to make you wonder about the validity of it. I kept my thoughts to myself, but Morgan ended up lamenting the same thing while telling Mr S about the book. He was also heavily disappointed in the rushed telling of the new church, which led to our choice to take a long stay in the Middle Ages {school year} as we take our time working through MOH 2.

Morgan conquered 2 more steps on AAS. This has been such a long time coming for the kid. He really struggled with a few of the things & kept constantly second guessing himself. He was so relieved to get everything consistently right & get those stickers on his chart. Spelling doesn't come naturally to him & is not an easy task to teach him or for him to grasp. He gets that letters make words & he understands there are specific ways for it to happen, that's a give-in. While he can memorise the rules it often comes down to rote memorisation for him to make this an easier subject. I hate that he constantly second guesses himself, but when your eyes play tricks on you I can understand the lack of security in thinking you've got it right. One step at a time, we'll get there.

We opted to tackle a fun art project on Tuesday as our home ed group met up in the beginning of the week instead of closer to the end. There was a specially organised outing which we skipped out on, but met up with friends at the park later. I had some resistance from the man in blue over this project, but once he got started he was keen to keep going & not so sure he wanted to go to the park. In fact the only reason he opted to go in the end was when I reminded him we wouldn't see friends for the next 5 weeks or so.

We started some science as well. Science has been a real battle this year as I've sought curriculum that fits not only our goals but teaches science & not faith lessons. That's better saved for another post. In the mean time as we waited for the remainder of our physic books to come we started in on human body. We'll do both of these each year, which I'll also explain in another post.

Jayde wrapped up some notebooking pages he had on hand. Yes, he often sits like this to write which might explain his poor penmanship, but man if you saw it a year ago you'd agree with me that he's had vast improvement. Not in posture, but in handwriting.. you know, just to clarify. We also wrapped up the lovely Finding Marco Polo much to his delight. He was sitting in rapt attention as we came to the end of the book, as I close it for the final time he gave a contended sigh. I noticed someone tried to sneak it onto our own bookcase, but it's honestly a library book.

We also hit the beach so the dog could run off steam. When we walk around our neighbourhood he has to be on a leash, but at this particular beach he is permitted to run as long as we are keeping an eye on him. We've been wanting to train him to run alongside the bicycles so the kids took their bikes & let him run alongside while I was able to listen to my audio book. I was in awe of the size of the waves when I snapped that photo. While it doesn't look it the waves were easily 4 or more feet high that day. We also spotted a seal a couple of times & had a grand time watching the tugboats sit in the mouth of the harbour waiting on a larger boat to come in.

All in all not a bad week for us. We do have a few minor things we may, or may not, attempt to wrap up before we begin our new term. It's odd to be starting a new, long, study in the new term knowing we won't wrap it up completely before the end of our school year, but I'm learning to roll with the punches. We also delighted in listening to more of our audio book, highly recommended by a friend who knows our tastes well, The Misadventures Of Maude March. The boys also had swim lessons, all though I didn't snap any photos. It was all I could do not to fall off the bench laughing, which the other life guards did end up doing.

Their coach was working on leg power with them this week & explaining the importance of keeping their hips & legs in one fluid motion. Only instead of being in the water with them like he usually is he was on the side of the pool demonstrating & I'm pretty sure if mermaids {or men} existed & were attempting to walk on land what he was demonstrating was exactly what it would have looked like. Im' pretty sure my boys were the only two not laughing, which impressed their coach to no end. When he spoke with me after lessons he actually said he found it amazing that he can demonstrate the most absurd things but they never bat an eye about trying it out. I didn't have the heart to tell them he should witness a family dinner in our house, it would answer every question he has.

Both boys worked on diving again this week, which they were delighted with. Morgan seems to have finally got it down pat & managed several with no splash at all. Jayden, on the other hand, managed to clear his coach, 2 guards, & a couple of innocent bystanders away from the edge of the pool with his dive. Fun times, fun times!

Last, but not least, the kids also listened to Stick Dog. The book was actually an assigned book for Jayde. I'll have to explain assigned audio books in another post, but the point is it was on Jayde's list. Only Jayde listened to such a lovely book he was lacking inspiration to try anything else, compounded with a rough day for him, & miserable weather he was spent one evening. I ended up downloading it & playing it through the tv to distract him from his bad mood & the book was such a hit that he begged to take it to bed with him. I was just dozing off when he came bounding in to our room shouting, "He got a burger!! Oh, and we finished the book."